Cooking for profit

A distribution of leaves which garnished the dish was then made by the Provost (Dr. Magrath). The custom of serving up the boar's head at Queen's College has been observed for about 500 years, one authority quoting 1350 as being the probable year of the first festival. — London Caterer. The man whose oflice requires him to provide a boar's head in the orthodox fashion for such an occasion as that described, be he "manciple" steward or cook, must feel a greater importance attaching to the task than if it were the most elaborate of transient party dinners. A dozen or more of boar's heads were shown at the London Exhibition. They are equally prominent in continental displays. The narratives of continental history as well as fiction abound in recitals of wild boar hunts, in the Forest of Ardennes, in France, the Black Forest, in Germany. A boar's head a la St. Hubert is among the highest achievements a chef in ornamental work can set himself to accomplish. St. Hubert is the patron saint of hunters. The piece is a boar's head, the bones taken out, stuffed, cooked, set up in the likeness of life, glazed, ornamented, placed upon a stand, set amongst waxen or silver-plated branches of a tree, decorated with bays and hunting horns and spears and heads of hounds. The carcass of a real wild boar from the Black Forest was displayed at the Exhibition, much as a grizzly bear from the Rocky Mountains might be displayed in this country. It was an object of curiosity and interest and was immediately purchased by the steward of a large establishment. BOAR'S HEAD GALANTINES. For practice in putting up a boar's head the beginner should bone and cook pigs' heads to serve cold, until he has become familiar with the methods of making them good and of putting them in shape. One or two heads a week would be esteemed a luxury in any hotel among the regular cold dishes. For there was no foolishness about the ancient liking for a hogs head and it is considered as good eating to-day as it ever was, but requires a good deal of the cook. It must be partly salted, it must have the superabundant fat cut out and lean and brawn supplied instead; it must be carefully seasoned and cooked until perfectly tender and the liquor it is boiled in is jelly. Choose a large head for the purpose and a small one to stuff it with. Cut it as far back as the shoulder bones of the hog to get as much of the neck as possible. Begin at the throat and cut the meat from the bone without cutting through the skin; take out the tongue, put them both into the corned beef brine (No. 6=50) to remain two or three days. Then take them out, wash and trim, and cut away all the fat of the jowls. Sew up the mouth and throat. Place the small head similarly boned and prepared inside the large one, fill in with tongues cut in strips and some well seasoned pork sausage meat. Cover in the neck with the rind of pickled pork, then sew the stuffed head in a cloth, boil it four or five hours, take it up and press it in a suitable mould and set it away to become cold. After that take off the cloth, remove the threads and slice the meat to serve. TO MAKE AN ORNAMENTAL DISH.